The book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman highlights the ongoing trend towards infotainment. Though the book was written in 1985, its concepts still connect with media trends today.
For example, Postman states, “Former [presidential] nominee George McGovern has hosted the popular television show Saturday Night Live. So has a candidate of more recent vintage, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.”
Ironically, the current potential Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, has also hosted SNL. Actually, everything about SNL closely ties to Postman’s discussion.
While thinking about Postman’s ideas during my daily life I find they still have relevance in today’s media. Postman states that we are more concerned with entertainment and images then news and ideas. Even when just examining SNL, this is seen in its news parody, “Weekend Update” and its sketches sparked by current events.
The impact of shows like SNL on our culture ties to Postman’s statements about Americans increasingly seeking infotainment. As Postman predicted this is not a dying trend. Since 1985 more of these types of shows have emerged, such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
According to the SNL, True Hollywood Story, during the 2000 election over a third of Americans under 30 watched SNL for their election news. In addition, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller note in their book, Live from New York, that Al Gore and his aides watched the 2000 election parodies to determine why Gore was defeated during the presidential debates.
The fact that we have evolved into a culture where the presidential candidate watched a comedy show to evaluate his campaign would infuriate Postman. Our culture and the media are so intertwined that we do not even think about what it means for the next possible president to have hosted a sophomoric, comedy show; a show, as Postman would note, that has become part of the culture itself. SNL is a perfect example of Postman’s discussion because its sole purpose is making current trends and events into entertainment.
SNL, and most of the shows on television today, connect with Postman’s statement that “Television is our culture’s principle mode of knowing about itself. Therefore, […] how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly staged.”
Reading Amusing Ourselves to Death illustrates that as our culture becomes more about the media, the media reflects this trend, which creates an ongoing cycle towards infotainment obsession.
For example, Postman states, “Former [presidential] nominee George McGovern has hosted the popular television show Saturday Night Live. So has a candidate of more recent vintage, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.”
Ironically, the current potential Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, has also hosted SNL. Actually, everything about SNL closely ties to Postman’s discussion.
While thinking about Postman’s ideas during my daily life I find they still have relevance in today’s media. Postman states that we are more concerned with entertainment and images then news and ideas. Even when just examining SNL, this is seen in its news parody, “Weekend Update” and its sketches sparked by current events.
The impact of shows like SNL on our culture ties to Postman’s statements about Americans increasingly seeking infotainment. As Postman predicted this is not a dying trend. Since 1985 more of these types of shows have emerged, such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
According to the SNL, True Hollywood Story, during the 2000 election over a third of Americans under 30 watched SNL for their election news. In addition, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller note in their book, Live from New York, that Al Gore and his aides watched the 2000 election parodies to determine why Gore was defeated during the presidential debates.
The fact that we have evolved into a culture where the presidential candidate watched a comedy show to evaluate his campaign would infuriate Postman. Our culture and the media are so intertwined that we do not even think about what it means for the next possible president to have hosted a sophomoric, comedy show; a show, as Postman would note, that has become part of the culture itself. SNL is a perfect example of Postman’s discussion because its sole purpose is making current trends and events into entertainment.
SNL, and most of the shows on television today, connect with Postman’s statement that “Television is our culture’s principle mode of knowing about itself. Therefore, […] how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly staged.”
Reading Amusing Ourselves to Death illustrates that as our culture becomes more about the media, the media reflects this trend, which creates an ongoing cycle towards infotainment obsession.
1 comment:
Good focus on this entry
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